SWG Chapter 44

Chapter 44

After finishing work, Li Wan went straight home, so only two people were driving back to the street.

Xiao Wenyu fastened her seatbelt and then said, “I thought the one being scolded was the student not wearing a school uniform. I didn’t expect it to be the homeroom teacher. She’s so young.”

Ruan Shengyi’s hand on the gear shift faltered slightly, and she chuckled. “Yeah, yeah, young and promising, and good-looking too.”

Xiao Wenyu supported her head with one hand, leaned against the car window, and looked at her with a smile. Seeing that she pursed her lips after speaking, she laughed and teased, “How about Ruan boss dyeing your hair a deep red later? It should suit you well.”

Ruan Shengyi said unhappily, “Thank you for not suggesting I dye it pitch black.”

Xiao Wenyu suppressed a laugh. “That won’t do. Jealousy isn’t pitch black.”

Ruan Shengyi belatedly realized, “Oh! You’re mocking me.”

She changed the subject. “Aren’t we roommates and neighbors? Why would I be jealous of my neighbor? Teacher Xiao, you’re too presumptuous~”

“Oh, really? Then I’ll ask my mom for that young teacher’s contact information.”

Wait, shouldn’t she be asking if their relationship has even reached the point of jealousy? Why is she already asking for contact information?

Ruan Shengyi wanted to grab the phone, but the other woman cried out, “One life for two! One life for two! Think it over!”

Ruan Shengyi: …

She silently gripped the steering wheel tighter.

Xiao Wenyu patted her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, how could Ruan boss be jealous of me? I’m just teasing you.”

Ruan Shengyi was even more silent.

She really wanted to say that she would, that she was jealous.

But what is her relationship with Xiao Wenyu right now? How is she qualified to say those words?

In the end, all that remained was a soft hum.

But this hum sounded more like, *you know it*.

After a long time, so long that silence had filled the entire car, Xiao Wenyu leaned to the side and said lazily, “What color hair do you want to dye later?”

“Haze blue-black.”

Xiao Wenyu’s eyes lit up. “I have a set of clothes that would go perfectly with haze blue. Do you want to not dye it so black?”

“Too flashy, and…”

Xiao Wenyu relaxed and leaned back. “You don’t take photos. I almost forgot.”

Ruan Shengyi gently flexed her fingers, tapped the steering wheel, and said softly, “It’s better… if you don’t post them.”

The air shifted strangely. Xiao Wenyu pursed her lips and said softly, “So, why doesn’t the boss want to take photos?”

This question had to be asked eventually. The topic would always end up here. Rather than wait anxiously, it was better to bring it up while they were already talking about it.

Resentment should be resolved, not accumulated.

Ruan Shengyi pondered for a moment and said, “I ran away from home. Um… in short, I don’t want my family to see any chance of finding me.”

This wasn’t exactly a lie, just omitting the debt and her past.

But it sounded like such an absurd excuse, so useless that she herself didn’t quite believe it, and she secretly tightened her grip on the hem of the steering wheel.

But the other woman just hooked her lips. “That’s true. Our Ruan boss is so young and accomplished. It’s best not to let those people in your family latch onto you as relatives and grind you down.”

Ruan Shengyi didn’t know what to say and could only respond with a soft sound, her heart slightly relieved.

Let her think about how to explain, let her think about it.

When the hairstylist asked Ruan Shengyi what color she wanted to dye her hair, she glanced at the person sitting next to her flipping through a catalog, thought for a moment, and said, “Haze blue, can I do it without bleaching?”

“The color will fade very quickly.”

In the corner of her eye, the person flipping through the catalog stopped, but without even looking up at her, Ruan Shengyi smiled and said, “It’s okay, fading quickly is good, I can change it quickly.”

“You should bleach it, otherwise the color will fade unevenly.”

“We came together, I shouldn’t make other people wait too long.”

The hairstylist glanced at the person in the chair next to her and laughed. “I’ve heard that the neighborhood atmosphere on Commercial Street is good. Oh my, you even come to dye your hair together?”

Xiao Wenyu gently put down the catalog and smiled warmly. “How long does bleaching take?”

“Bleaching once and dyeing once, less than two hours. Fortunately, Ruan boss’s hair is already dark tea, the base color isn’t heavy.”

Xiao Wenyu: “Let’s bleach it?”

This was a question that tested their understanding of each other. There was no subject, but the subject being addressed knew exactly what was being asked and nodded slightly. “Let’s bleach it.”

Xiao Wenyu: “It just so happens that my chestnut brown has faded quite a bit too. Can you do mine while she’s getting hers done? But I’m prone to allergies, so you might need some high-standard stuff.”

The hairstylist smiled. “Just wait and see. All the products we have on display are top-notch, all of them safe for pregnant women to use, except for the bleaching stuff, which is a chemical reagent and can’t be helped. You can rest assured and use anything else.”

“After all, whether it’s the people doing it or the people using it, or even someone like me who’s applying the color, we’re all doing it for people, so of course, we have to be considerate of our bodies, right?”

Xiao Wenyu smiled, sat to the side, and untied her hair, the slightly drooping hair obscuring much of her smile, making it seem hazy.

It also blocked the gaze of the other person staring at her, and that person slowly retracted their gaze.

Finally, she wouldn’t talk about her negative news everywhere, but instead, made up a reason and changed the subject?

Ruan Shengyi knew that it was most likely because she didn’t want more people to know about the baby, as more people knowing meant more risk. But just now, she suddenly realized that Xiao Wenyu seemed to have stopped mentioning her divorce for a long time, no longer bringing it up as often as before.

When did it start?

She pondered this in her heart, letting the other person fuss with her hair.

It seemed that after they came back from eating the congee hot pot, Xiao Wenyu stopped telling everyone.

Why?

By the time the hair was dyed, the sky was almost completely dark. Without sunlight, the blue on Ruan Shengyi’s head couldn’t show off its brilliance. Illuminated by the stark white overhead lights, it only made her face look even paler, even somewhat sickly.

Because she wasn’t wearing makeup today.

Xiao Wenyu sat to the side, watching the hairstylist blow-dry the other woman’s slightly curly long hair, her fingers unconsciously curling, wanting to hook a strand of hair and hold it in her hand.

This person really suited blue. Cold and aloof, but not as cold as white, which was cold to the heart, leaving no warmth. Ruan Shengyi’s coldness was a coldness that hid warmth, a coldness that wouldn’t freeze your hand when you touched it, a coldness where she had constructed a layer of defensive armor for herself.

Walking to the car, Xiao Wenyu tugged at the ties of the other woman’s coat. “Back to the bar.”

Ruan Shengyi said softly, “It’s so late today, let’s not.”

Xiao Wenyu reached out and hooked a strand of hair, holding it gently. “Tonight is the prettiest it will be, fluffy and loose. You won’t be able to style it like this tomorrow.”

She was lying. How could she not be able to style it like this?

Ruan Shengyi saw through her lie. After all, this hairstyle wasn’t difficult to replicate.

Their gazes met, conveying surging, uneven emotions.

Finally, Ruan Shengyi hummed in agreement, opened the car door, and watched the other person sit in the car. As she was about to close the door, it was gently stopped.

Xiao Wenyu looked up at her, her eyes slightly moist. “Ruan Shengyi, don’t indulge me too much. I become very scary when I become dependent on someone.”

Ruan Shengyi knew that her next action might be a bit greasy. She leaned in slightly, rested her arm on the car door, supported her head, and allowed herself to completely and thoroughly immerse herself in Xiao Wenyu’s gaze.

She said softly, “You better get used to it more, even more.”

She stared at the other woman for a long time with her eyes full of surging undercurrents, with warm and moist breath, and lowered her gaze slightly.

She yearned for the emotions in her eyes to flow into the other person’s heart through their gaze, hoping that this warmth could help her piece together her heart faster, and then let her live inside.

She didn’t know what she had done right the day she ate that strange hot pot, but now she desperately wanted to do something, the desire from the depths of her genes was drumming in her, urging her.

While she could still restrain herself, and hadn’t yet followed in the footsteps of those two lunatics, let her embrace her more, just a little bit.

Suddenly, the woman reached out and cupped her cheeks, her fingers sliding along her neck, which was a little cool from being exposed, all the way up, gently cupping the back of her ears, and then stopping there.

Ruan Shengyi should have been immersed in the romance, but she tensed up the moment the cool fingers touched the back of her ear, opened her mouth, but the back of her ear had already been pressed.

Xiao Wenyu frowned, her fingers sliding slightly, as if to make sure she hadn’t touched the wrong thing, and then asked in a cold voice, “Why is there such a long scar behind your ear?”

She even suspected that she had seen wrong. After all, it had only been a fleeting glimpse. Who would have thought that she had wanted to create a romantic atmosphere, but had touched this scar, which felt a finger-length long, running across the entire back of her ear.

It didn’t feel like a burn, but rather like a knife scar.

Ruan Shengyi lowered her gaze and said softly, “It was a cut from when I was young, nothing serious.”

“You were a kid in the nineties or even the two-thousands, Ruan boss. Back then, would a cut like this leave such a long scar? What was it cut with?”

Ruan Shengyi, however, grasped the hand as if unwilling to bring up the past, brought it in front of her, and sighed softly, “Let’s go back to the bar.”

She really wanted to use her scars to heal Xiao Wenyu, and she had indeed tried to use her scars to heal Xiao Wenyu, but when asked about these sufferings, she didn’t know how to open her mouth.

The story was easy to tell, it was just that Ruan Qing was mentally confused when she had her first episode, smashing a porcelain bowl, and she happened to fall on the broken porcelain shards, cutting such a long, bloody gash, using her blood to bring back Ruan Qing’s clear consciousness, and later, she didn’t know how to take care of it, and the other normal person was addicted to pleasure and didn’t want to teach her, and it repeatedly became inflamed and swollen, and finally left a long scar.

But after telling it?

Telling it would mean that she had to dissect the two most base parts of her genes and show them to Xiao Wenyu, and then ask her –

Are you scared?

Never mind, let her secretly experience love.

She sat in the driver’s seat, silently started the car, and waited for the lights that should be on in the car to turn on once, and then gradually dimmed into darkness because of the night, the car was extremely dark, with only blurry figures remaining.

Only then did Ruan Shengyi lower her voice and say, “Xiao Wenyu, if I were a very, very bad person, so bad that I hid a huge secret from you, would you…”

Still like me?

She bit her lip. “Would you still want to be my neighbor?”

But I still don’t want to let go, I’m so greedy.

…